Johns Hopkins University researchers have already conducted important research that describes why families choose homeschooling, revealing the growing numbers of such families in recent years, and explaining the changing demographics of homeschoolers. And last month, they brought us another look at this burgeoning education sector, examining homeschooled students’ ability for self-regulated learning and self-efficacy. The new findings are a bit less robust than their earlier groundbreaking work, but valuable nonetheless.
The new report is credited to three JHU researchers—Xue Wang, Genevieve Smith, and Angela Watson—and is a systematic look at a number of prior studies on the topic of homeschooled students’ motivation and perseverance toward achieving learning goals. Self-regulated learning (SRL)—typically defined as the “active, constructive process whereby learners set goals for their learning and then attempt to monitor, regulate, and control their cognition, motivation, and behavior, guided and constrained by those goals and the contextual features of their environment”—and the related area of self-efficacy (or, student belief in their academic abilities) have been consistently linked to academic achievement, motivation, and overall well-being of young people. However, nearly all of this knowledge comes from research in conventional school settings. Reasoning that homeschooled students could experience greater autonomy in learning, more personalized instruction, and different forms of social interaction than their traditionally-educated peers, the researchers looked to a raft of existing data to see if impacts and implications specifically for homeschoolers could be teased out.
Wang and her team identified a total of 23 studies that fit their selection criteria—meaning those with original empirical findings focused on K–12 homeschooled students that reported descriptive statistics related to SRL or self-efficacy outcomes (for quantitative studies) or investigated factors influencing SRL or self-efficacy outcomes (for qualitative studies). Two-thirds of the selected studies appeared in journals, while the remainder came from dissertations. About half were published between 2000 and 2020, and the rest between 2021 and 2024. Two analyses provided both quantitative and qualitative findings, resulting in 15 studies contributing quantitative data and 10 contributing qualitative data. A majority of the studies were conducted in the United States. The combined sample size for all selected studies was 6,312 participants.
Their first research question—levels of SRL and self-efficacy reported among homeschooled students—was addressed by six of the quantitative studies. Two of those used rating schema created by the original researchers, while the other four applied existing instruments, such as the Social Skills Rating System and the Self-Efficacy for Learning Form. The researchers streamlined the various schema into a single scale of low to high self-efficacy. The combined findings suggest that homeschooled students had moderate to high levels of confidence in their academic abilities. However, available data cannot determine whether homeschooling contributes to these skills or if families select homeschooling for children who already possess these characteristics.
The second research question—how homeschooled students’ SRL and self-efficacy compared to conventionally-educated peers—was addressed via data from eight of the quantitative studies. The evidence was mixed, with one study reporting significantly higher academic self-efficacy scores for homeschooled students than their conventionally schooled peers, even after controlling for socioeconomic status and parental involvement. However, the other studies found no difference or non-significant differences with homeschooled students slightly lagging traditionally-educated students.
The final research question—examining the factors that impact SRL and self-efficacy in homeschooled students—resulted in a list of five primary influences. These are the level of parental involvement and teaching approaches used (unschooling, co-ops, virtual learning, etc.), curriculum structure and flexibility, learning environment characteristics, social interactions and community involvement outside the homeschool context, and student age and developmental factors. Data from the 10 qualitative studies show strongly interwoven influences, with individualized feedback, parent modeling of SRL and self-efficacy, and reduced performance anxiety based on curriculum structure recurring as mechanisms through which homeschooling may foster self-efficacy development. Wang and her team suggest that these qualitative findings “complement the quantitative findings by illustrating the processes and contexts that may explain the generally high levels of SRL and self-efficacy observed among homeschooled students.”
The biggest takeaway in the report is that perennial concerns about homeschooled students being academically deprived in some way by not experiencing a traditional education model are likely overstated. In fact, in the vital area of student self-motivation, homeschooled students in these studies show at least as much self-efficacy for learning than their traditionally-educated peers. And even though these are not causal findings, they still highlight the importance of considering student and family diversity when developing policies that impact education writ large. Politicians, pundits, parents, and the education establishment should accept that homeschoolers are not automatically disadvantaged for making this choice and, in many cases, are actually better off.
SOURCE: Xue Wang, Genevieve Smith, and Angela Watson, “Self-Regulated Learning and Self-Efficacy Among Homeschooled Students: A Systematic Review,” Journal of School Choice (October 2025).
